Free games of the week

The best freebies from the last seven days.

POLYBOT-7 by Josh "Kyzrati" Ge, Kacper Woźniak

Wowza. POLYBOT-7 is an extraordinarily impressive game from the man behind Cogmind, and it too is an (optionally ASCII) sci-fi roguelike featuring robots—lots and lots of robots. Made for this year's 7DRL, POLYBOT puts you in the, er, shoes I guess of a little 'bot roaming around a mahoosive facility, a facility notable for its plethora of killing equipment, but also its abundance of machines looking to turn you into a useful pile of scrap.

If it seems a little offputting at first, know that the game isn't quite as overwhelming as it first appears, but also that the realistic and atmospheric sound effects, and the surprisingly kinetic visual effects do more than enough to immerse you into this visually abstract world.

ASMR by Dani Soria

A short, lightly interactive horror experience that springs off of those YouTube videos where people make mouth-sounds and so on in front of a camera. It's a short, sharp game that doesn't need much of an introduction, but if you like body horror, techno-horror, and just plain horror, then I reckon ASMR is something you should really play.

Unsafe – Chapter 2 by Sylvester Hansen

Don't ask me what happened to Chapter 1 (it doesn't seem to exist), but here's another brief horror game set in an abandoned school. The heart of this horror isn't a monster, exactly, but the pain of dealing with a world that refuses to accept your sexuality. As you explore the school, as you look at, pick up and combine items with the environment, your character will gradually confront that pain. (Thanks, Warp Door.)

BAD VIBES by pfail

BAD VIBES is a little bit Devil Daggers, a little bit Wolfenstein 3D, and a rather colourful and cute shoot'-em-up on top of that. In this one-stage, endless score-chasing shooter, you gad about in an alien maze, collecting energy globules with which to fling at hostile eyeballs and other monsters. It's a fun game that's just dripping with style, from the expressive colour scheme to the fact that you're shooting blobs of energy rather than wielding boring guns.

The Basics Of Sacred Geometry by Yuliya Kozhemyako

A very strange not-quite-game that also finds the time to be a not-quite-tutorial about the act of working with 3D objects when designing games. Structured a little like Portal—in that you move between a linear series of test rooms—Sacred Geometry consists of a bunch of abstract environments, in which you're required to use the mouse wheel to adjust the world before moving forward. Perhaps you're altering the luminescence of light bulbs, or playing around with booleans; I'm not entirely sure who this is aimed it, but in this seven-level demo you'll get to explore some visually sumptuous and thrillingly weird places, and those are the sorts of opportunities you should really jump at, when they appear.